Culturally Diverse Writing

Styles
Shanna Williams
 Visual Representations of Culturally
Diverse Writing Styles
English Arabic Oriental Romance Russian

Kaplan, Robert, B. “Cultural Thought Patterns in Inter-Cultural Education.” Landmark Essays on ESL Writing, edited by Tony Silva
and Paul Kei Matsuda. Hermagoras Press, 2001, pp 11-25.
 Culturally Diverse Writing Styles

 According to Richard Kaplan, “The foreign-student paper is out of

focus because the foreign student is employing a rhetoric and a
sequence of thought which violate the expectations of the native
reader.”

Kaplan, Robert, B. “Cultural Thought Patterns in Inter-Cultural Education.” Landmark Essays on ESL Writing, edited by Tony Silva
and Paul Kei Matsuda. Hermagoras Press, 2001, pp 11-25.
 Culturally Diverse Writing Styles

 Alan Purves looked at college students’ essays in Australia, England,

Finland, Ivory Coast, Israel, Japan, Nigeria, New Zealand, Scotland,
Thailand, and the United States
 Purves found, “If one were to examine the whole group of essays, one
would notice a striking difference between countries and a striking similarity
within countries.”

Purves, Alan C. “Rhetorical Communities the International Student, and Basic Writing.” Journal of Basic Writing, vol. 5, No. 1, 1986,
pp. 38-51. wac.colostate.edu/jbw/v5n1/purves.pdf
 Contrastive Rhetoric

 Kaplan’s initial discussion of culturally diverse writing styles and the myriad
of scholarly research that followed became known as the study of
contrastive rhetoric.
 As explained by Ulla Connor, contrastive rhetoric “is premised on the insight
that, to the degree that language and writing are cultural phenomena,
different cultures have different rhetorical tendencies.”

Connor, Ulla. “New Directions in Contrastive Rhetoric.” TESOL Quaterly, vol. 36, no. 4, Winter 2002, pp. 493-510.

www.jstor.org/stable/3588238.
 Culturally Diverse Writing Styles
Chinese Writing Style
 There is no concept of a topic sentence in Chinese writing.
 US students tend to be significantly more direct in their writing than Chinese
students.
 Chinese writing also tends to pay much less attention to paragraph
organization as opposed to US writing.

Yang, Ling and David Cahill. “The Rhetorical Organization of Chinese and American Students’ Expository Essays: A Contrastive
Rhetoric Study.” International Journal of English Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, 2008, pp. 113-132. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/library.brookdalecc.edu/stable/669330.
 Culturally Diverse Writing Styles

Korean Writing Style

 Students do not follow a specific rhetorical pattern.
 The structure of Korean essays are non-linear

Choi, Yhee. “Text Structure of Korean Speakers’ Argumentative Essays in English.” World English, vol. 7, no. 2, 1988, pp.
129-142. doi: 10.1111/1467-971.
 Culturally Diverse Writing Styles

Japanese Writing Style

 Japanese students use a deductive type of organizational pattern
 Sudden topic shifts
 The main idea is presented at the end

Hirose, Keiko. “Comparing L1 and L2 Organizational Patterns in the Argumentative Writing of Japanese EFL Students.” Journal of
Second Language Learning, vol. 12, 2003, pp. 181-209. doi: 10.1016/1060-3743.
Kubota, Ryuko. “An Investigation of L1-L2 Transfer in Writing Among Japanese University Students: Implications for Contrastive Rhetoric.”
Journal of Second Language Writing, Vol. 7, no. 1, 1998, pp. 69-100. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1060374398900066
 Culturally Diverse Writing Styles

Persian Writing Style

 A typical paragraph contains one claim in the beginning and another claim at
the end.
 There is a great use of parallelism which enables the inclusion of two claims in
one paragraph.

Pishghadam, Reza, and Atena Attaran. “Rhetorical Patterns of Argumentation in EFL Journals of Persian and
English.” International Journal of Research in Language Learning, vol. 2, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 81-90.
http://scholar.google.com/scholar_url?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.consortiacademia.org%2Findex.php%2Fijrsll%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2
F132%2F104&hl=en&sa=T&oi=gga&ct=gga&cd=27&ei=B9MQWfPkGIHWjAHJmaeYBg&scisig=AAGBfm192rk7BDjLRqly_61U6TRgFo4x5A&
nossl=1&ws=1680x901.
 Culturally Diverse Writing Styles

Persian Writing Style Continued

 Persian writers use more irony, hedges, rhetorical questions, and the passive
voice more than English writers
 Persian writers are less likely to include a direct thesis statement in the
introduction
 Persian writers either do not state the main idea directly or state it at the
end of the essay

Alijanian, Ehsan and Hossein Vahid Dastjerdi. “The Use of Indirectness Devices in Persian and English Argument Written Discourse:
A Cross-Cultural Perspective.” International Journal of Linguistics, vol. 4, no. 3, 2012, pp. 60-70. doi: 10.5296/ijl.v4i3.1733
 Culturally Diverse Writing Styles

Taiwanese Writing Style

 Taiwanese writing has less extended and complex argumentation style
 Taiwanese writing is much less likely to include personal experience in
comparison to US writing

Cheng, Fei-Wen and Yueh-Miao Chen. “Taiwanese Argumentation Skills: Contrastive Rhetoric Perspective.” Taiwan International
ESP Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, 2009, pp. 23-50.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266577055_Taiwanese_argumentation_skills_Contrastive_rhetoric_perspective
 Culturally Diverse Writing Styles

French Writing Style

 French writing style encourages digressions while the US writing style does
not.

Siepmann, Dirk. “Academic Writing and Culture: An Overview of Differences Between English, French, and German.” Meta, vol.
51, No. 1, 2006, pp. 131-150. www.erudit.org/revue/meta/2006/v51/n1/012998ar.pdf.
 Culturally Diverse Writing Styles
German Writing Style
 Thesis statements are not taught in Germany.
 Little emphasis is placed on introductions and conclusions.
 German writing is more likely to contain digressions than US writing.

Reichelt, Melinda. “Defining ‘Good Writing’: A Cross-Cultural Perspective.” Composition Studies, vol. 31, no. 1, Spring 2003, pp.

99-126, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43501541.

 Culturally Diverse Writing Styles

Siepmann, Dirk. “Academic Writing and Culture: An Overview of Differences Between English, French, and
German.” Meta, vol. 51, No. 1, 2006, pp. 131-150.
www.erudit.org/revue/meta/2006/v51/n1/012998ar.pdf.
 Writer or Reader Responsibility?

 According to Melinda Reichelt, “US writers, in comparison to German

writers, may be expected to convey information in a way that is as clear as
possible. The expectation of US readers that texts should be transparent
and that readers would be able to read and interpret texts for themselves
may correlate with US cultural values of equity and non-elitism. This
contrasts with German values regarding scholarly activity, in which it may
be more acceptable or expected for a writer to exhibit his/her intellectual
prowess by writing obscurely… In English speaking countries, most of the
onus falls on writers to make their texts readable, whereas it is the readers
who have to make the extra effort in German-speaking countries so that
they can understand the texts, especially if the author is an academic.”

Reichelt, Melinda. “Defining ‘Good Writing’: A Cross-Cultural Perspective.” Composition Studies, vol. 31, no. 1, Spring 2003, pp.
99-126, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43501541.
 Writer or Reader Responsibility?

 According to Pishghadam and Altaran,“We found that taking both inductive

and deductive development in a paragraph makes Persian readers be more
responsible than English readers to grasp the main idea of the paragraph.
Consequently, Persian readers are needed to read between lines and receive
covert messages which endorse the concept of high-context culture as well.”

Pishghadam, Reza, and Atena Attaran. “Rhetorical Patterns of Argumentation in EFL Journals of Persian and
English.” International Journal of Research in Language Learning, vol. 2, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 81-90.
http://scholar.google.com/scholar_url?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.consortiacademia.org%2Findex.php%2Fijrsll%2Farticle%2F
download%2F132%2F104&hl=en&sa=T&oi=gga&ct=gga&cd=27&ei=B9MQWfPkGIHWjAHJmaeYBg&scisig=AAGBfm192rk7B
DjLRqly_61U6TRgFo4x5A&nossl=1&ws=1680x901.
 Writer or Reader Responsibility?

 According to Alijanian and Dastjerdi, “Generally speaking, indirectness in

Persian writing is considered an artistic style with the aim of achieving
respect and indicating harmony in human communication. Persian readers
are more patient in reading compositions; they are expected to realize the
connotation of a text and work hard. Even it can be suggested that stating
the points too clearly is disrespecting the readers; the writer is expected to
give room to his interlocutors for interpretation.”

Alijanian, Ehsan and Hossein Vahid Dastjerdi. “The Use of Indirectness Devices in Persian and English Argument Written Discourse:
A Cross-Cultural Perspective.” International Journal of Linguistics, vol. 4, no. 3, 2012, pp. 60-70. doi: 10.5296/ijl.v4i3.1733
 Writer or Reader Responsibility?

 According to Kubota, in Japanese writing, “the main ideas do not appear

until the end and the paragraphs before the main ideas do not constitute
reasons or evidence for the main idea.” Therefore, “The reader is
responsible for finding the link between the topic and the main idea.”

Kubota, Ryuko. “An Investigation of L1-L2 Transfer in Writing Among Japanese University Students: Implications for Contrastive Rhetoric.”

Journal of Second Language Writing, Vol. 7, no. 1, 1998, pp. 69-100. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1060374398900066
 Writer or Reader Responsibility?

 According to Dirk Siepmann, “German texts, by virtue of their

digressiveness, are versatile and multi-faceted, whereas Anglo-Saxon
writing is repetitive and coulorless. Equally, German text structure might be
likened metaphorically to that of a ‘staircase’ or ‘spiral’ leading the writer
through even more complex stages of reasoning to the conclusion. Viewed
from this perspective, English academic style will appear like a walk over a
perfectly flat country with no attempt to venture into mountainous
territory.”

Siepmann, Dirk. “Academic Writing and Culture: An Overview of Differences Between English, French, and
German.” Meta, vol. 51, No. 1, 2006, pp. 131-150. www.erudit.org/revue/meta/2006/v51/n1/012998ar.pdf.
 Why Is There Cultural Diversity Among
Writing Styles?
 Culture and language differences have been historically identified as the
reasons for diversity among writing styles.
 However, more recent scholarship has challenged that position.
 According to Carol Severino, “Culturally and linguistically influenced
thought patterns cannot by themselves account for differences in
rhetorical patterns and features. There is a complex relationship between
cultural ways of thinking and that culture's literacy instruction.”

Severino, Carol. “The ‘Doodles’ in Context: Qualifying Claims about Contrastive Rhetoric.” The Writing Center Journal, vol. 14, no.

1, Fall 1993.
 Why Is There Cultural Diversity Among
Writing Styles?
 According to Ling Yang and David Cahill, “While culture as a whole may have
an important impact on students’ rhetorical patterns, the influence of school
education, which is direct and immediate, is non-negligible…Children learn to
write through formal instruction, normally in a school setting..”
 According to Helen Fox, “For although culture has a strong influence on writing
that all students produce, their writing ‘styles’ do not come in neat packages;
they are as complex and varied as the personalities and life experiences of
each individual in the human family.”

Yang, Ling and David Cahill. “The Rhetorical Organization of Chinese and American Students’ Expository Essays: A Contrastive
Rhetoric Study.” International Journal of English Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, 2008, pp. 113-132. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/library.brookdalecc.edu/stable/669330.
Fox, Helen. Listening to the World: Cultural Issues in Academic Writing. National Council of Teachers of English, 1994.
 Why Study Culturally Diverse Writing
Styles?
 According to Reichelt, “Further investigation into assumptions about good
writing can be beneficial because notions of good writing, whether explicit,
or more likely, implicit, have significant, concrete implications for students in
writing programs. They influence formation of student placement and exit
criteria for courses within programs; articulations of goals and development
of curriculum; response to student writing, assignment of grades; and
development of writing proficiency exams.”
 She continues, “The criteria for ‘good writing’ reside not just within the texts
but also within teachers, and teachers’ criteria are shaped, transformed,
and determined to a large extent by the historical, social, and cultural
forces that are beyond an individual’s control.”
Reichelt, Melinda. “Defining ‘Good Writing’: A Cross-Cultural Perspective.” Composition Studies, vol. 31, no. 1, Spring 2003, pp.
99-126, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43501541.
 What are the Implications of the Study
of Culturally Diverse Writing Styles?
 According to Severino, “Yet, in increasingly multicultural educational
settings such as writing centers, the internalization of reductive notions
about rhetorics of different languages and cultures, including English in the
US, can lead to skewed, simplistic expectations and interpretations of ESL
students and their writing and an ethnocentric, assimilationist pedagogical
stance.”

Severino, Carol. “The ‘Doodles’ in Context: Qualifying Claims about Contrastive Rhetoric.” The Writing Center Journal, vol. 14, no.
1, Fall 1993.
 What are the Implications of the Study
of Culturally Diverse Writing Styles?
 According to Reichelt, “Examining our own, local assumptions about ‘good
writing’ by juxtaposing them against those of other cultures is especially
important for writing specialists because it can help us understand in what
ways our assumptions about writing are culture based.”
 According to Christiane Donahue, “We need, essentially, to begin thinking
about where our work fits into the world rather than where the world’s work
fits into ours, and move beyond an ‘us-them’ paradigm.”

Donahue, Christian. “’Internationalization’ and Composition Studies” Reorienting the Discourse.” College Composition and

Communication, vol. 61, no. 2, December 2009, pp. 212-243. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40593441.

Reichelt, Melinda. “Defining ‘Good Writing’: A Cross-Cultural Perspective.” Composition Studies, vol. 31, no. 1, Spring 2003, pp.

99-126, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43501541.

 We Must Be Careful

 According to Dirk, “Every effort should be made to preserve the present

plurality of linguaculture through adequate writing instruction in each
language… Without such efforts, there is a real danger that uniformity and
monoculture will be the order of the day, seriously constraining the
linguistic, conceptual, and methodological richness afforded by the
current diversity of linguacultures and world-views.”

Siepmann, Dirk. “Academic Writing and Culture: An Overview of Differences Between English, French, and
German.” Meta, vol. 51, No. 1, 2006, pp. 131-150. www.erudit.org/revue/meta/2006/v51/n1/012998ar.pdf.
What Does All this Mean for Educators?

 According to Reichelt, “Teachers should be aware that conventions of essay

writing in the US, including organizational format, and the concept of a thesis
statement, may be unfamiliar to [ESL] students.”
 We need to be aware that some of our students might not understand what we
are looking for when assigning an essay.
 We need to make our expectations more explicit and clear to students who are
not familiar with the US culture writing style.

Reichelt, Melinda. “Defining ‘Good Writing’: A Cross-Cultural Perspective.” Composition Studies, vol. 31, no. 1, Spring 2003, pp.
99-126, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43501541.